*sigh* yes me too... I don't think ahead to nice fall asters and things when I'm planting, and my garden looks shabby already. Not to mention everything's swiss cheese due to slugs. It doesn't help that everyone else's gardens still look great - (looking great everyone, BTW!)

Time for me to clean up outside, head in and dust off the houseplants and see if any are still alive.

Now that you mention it, I REALLY need a chipper/shredder too!!! Two windstorms this year and there are branches everywhere just begging to become mulch for me... Anyone recommend an affordable light duty chipper?

Pretty much here too. I am in "wind down" mode.

The other day I went through all the digital pictures I took during the summer and made notes of when things started blooming for me and how long they bloomed. I was in the habit of taking pictures on the day that something opened up. Maybe I will make a chart this winter and make a better garden plan for next summer! (hahahaha) It's a thought anyways.

For the most part I am collecting seeds and pulling out the finished stuff.

It's tough to believe summer is over, or darn near over, with the beautiful day here today. It was 26C and just the most glorious day, and tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer (31C). I have started some fall cleanup and took the opportunity to toss some perennials that I no longer want, trying to get a head start on spring and the many changes I want to make.

Spring is my favourite time in the garden, but autumn has always been my favourite season - I wish it would last forever.

I have a small chipper shredder (5 hp MTD Yardmaster) but I'm not all that thrilled with it for branches - it's supposed to chip up to 2" diameter branches but has to work pretty hard to do that. (DH says an 8 hp motor would work better for that) And anything with multiple branches has to be cut into straight (unbranched) pieces for it to go thru the chipper. Having said all that, I don't know what I'd do with all the garden refuse (aside from branches) if it weren't for this machine - I pile everything up and twice a year (spring and fall) we shred everything and pile it back up to compost. The material that goes thru the shredder has to be dry, or somewhat dry though - wet (or green) material jams up the cutting mechanism.

I think that if you were buying a chipper shredder just for chipping up branches, I'd say use your money to buy bagged mulch instead and save yourself a lot of work (a LOT of work) that amounts to not much in the way of wood chips. You'd be surprised how a large pile of branches can turn into a very small pile of chips, and $600 or so can buy a lot of bagged (or delivered) mulch. But if you have a lot of garden and also want it for shredding up plant stems, leaves, etc, then I would recommend one - for me it turns into about 5 yards of unfinished compost per year.

Digging up Dahlia's on Saturday... First frost is expected in 6 more days here. Have all my cuttings already potted up the first batch.

holes in leaves are from slugs??? aha!! My tomatoes have sagged and are now touching the ground. Since about that time, I have noticed holes in the leaves. Wow! Problem solved! :)

No. Perennial gardens are still full of color. Mosquito population is way down. Nice, sunny warm days here and there. Finally have had four days in a row without rain. A ton of stuff yet to do. Trees are starting to turn color but garden-wise it doesn't feel like Fall. Maybe in another two-three weeks?
Jan

I am starting to panic here because everything is still completely waterlogged. I still have standing water in the side yard...it never dried up this year at all

I have a ton of stuff that needs to be relocated from the front shady bed to the side or back bed that gets more sun.
The problem with this is that I still have lilies that are in bud...not bloomed yet!!! I hope they bloom soon...before the frost anyway. I am afraid that once it gets cold the ground will freeze solid because of the amount of water in it, then I'll never get anything moved.

The other problem I am having is that we have been talking about selling this place and moving out to the lake. Well here I sit looking at the catalogues for fall bulbs, and walking past them at WalMart and I want to buy some so bad, but am afraid that I'll go crazy then won't get to enjoy them.

I really just want the water to go a way so I can do a bit of "renovating".

Not quite ready to call it quits yet. I still have some plants to go out yet and I'm hoping that after I get all my corn in the freezer(finally had a good crop after 4 years!) and get caught up pickling the cukes, and now that my 8 year old is finally back in school, I'll have some time to finish planting around the pond.
Some things are still looking ok, but some are definitely done for the year. Still haven't decided if I want to put in any tulips or daffs by the pond.....will have to see what's available in the stores as I didn't mail order any this year. Still so much to do and the time is running out :(
Laurie

I love fall too, although I'm still one of those who identifies with that girl on the commercial who screams when she sees an orange coloured leaf on the sidewalk........

The beautiful fall colours, the smell, everything, the air is wonderful too. But the thought of winter looming doesn't do anything for me!

Gardenwise, I have a lot still blooming, and much more to come, I hope. I'm waiting for my goldenrods, with my much awaited solidago 'Fireworks' ready to bloom, as well as white and pink aster ericoides. I have some wood asters blooming now and I'm pleased with them, it's their first year, and I look forward to seeing them next year when they are more established.

I've planted quite a few things that really don't come into their own till late summer or fall, and I find I really look forward to these blooms. The pink ericoides is quite a tall plant and expanding into nice clumps. I must.. get boltonia for next year, I didn't have any luck finding any this year, although I do know that Greenland in Sherwood Park carries them. ( alas, I didn't get up there this year )
I did sow seeds for it this summer, maybe I'll be suprised and have a ton of seedlings in the spring! Apparently boltonia is very prolific!

My garden in early spring really isn't up to scratch yet, I don't really have enough of the very early bloomers yet, besides tuliips and daffs, I need more of the earlies.
I would have to say that summer onwards is when my garden really comes into it's own.
I know I have to do some more planning in getting plants that do more for me in the late spring/early summer as well.
I'm working on it!

It's always fun to hear what everyone has in bloom in each part of our gardening season.

Faith

Not calling it quits, but definitely entering the autumn mode.

Have been moving around a few perennials. At first I worried that it was too hot, but then I reasoned that I canÂt leave everything until the last minute.

Then I finished planting my potted stuff. Clematis, kiwi, and a mugo pine.

Still have to take cuttings, dig out some plants, decide which I want to save seeds from. Then there will be the general cleanup and starting to winter protect.

I am feeling a bit weary of watering hanging baskets, etc, havenÂt been as devoted.

But, I guess I am a person who enjoys his yard. To each his own, but some yards in my neighborhood are pretty basic with just grass and a couple of shrubs. Not that my yard is fabulous, but I guess somewhere down the line I decided that I wanted to have more than just the basics so I guess the extra work goes with the territory. But, even a hobby can feel overwhelming at times but I think you guys have a great idea to make a "to do" list.

I usually enjoy later fall (October) more than early fall. Maybe itÂs because earlier in fall my mind is still trying to hold onto summer. By October, the annuals are mostly frost bitten and I have come to accept it. Plus, in a way itÂs neat to finally clear out that overcrowded flower bed and see bare soil, to see the branch outline of trees, etc.

Hunnerbun, I read on our local weather channel that for the period of Apr 1st to Aug 31st, Thompson has had double their average rainfall. Something like 600 mm when normal is approx 300.

Be careful with your tomato plants. I found that slugs were actually crawling onto the ripening fruit that was fairly close to the ground and making little indentations. Vine ripened tomatoes are so precious but I couldn't bring myself to eat that tomato.

Glen

Wind up time here.

Sask Perennial Society fall plant exchange is this Sunday. Have plants potted to go, but not labeled yet.

Plan to go the the Qu'Appelle Valley on Saturday and collect seed for Penstemon nitidus (sky blue flowers) and sow them in my rock garden - the only way I can get them to germinate is to sow them outside.

Fall cleanup this year will be a pain. City workers are on strike here (Regina), have to haul our own garbage away.

Wanted to ask - our best apple tree has fireblight. A little bit last couple of years, worse this year had to remove quite a few brances.

Spoke to an arborist on the phone, said there's no hope for the tree. I have seen fireblight kill a tree in my parent's yard, but they didn't do any pruning.

Anyway, I suppose the arborist is right. I was thinking of scheduling them to knock down the tree and drill the stump in early October, once the perennials under the tree have done dormant (have some precious ones under this tree).

Any advice appreciated.

Our garden is still full of colour. There must be dozens of plants still in bloom. For some reason some of the clematis were late this year...a couple just coming into bloom. It takes quite a hard frost to knock out most of the colour other than the annuals. Some of our annuals we'll protect because we'll sometimes get a light frost about the 3rd week of September and then none for a couple weeks. If the first frost comes later then we just say 'bye-bye' to the annuals.

In another week or so I'll start moving plants around. I also like to root alpine cuttings this time of year... plant seeds, etc. The compost bins will be getting refilled with new leaves, clippings, etc. after I use up the existing compost to amend flower beds. i like to do the renovating of beds and composting when planting spring bulbs. No matter how many bulbs we plant, we always wish we had more early Spring bulbs. The tulips, etc. are becoming less expensive at the box stores so we use the early bloomers more as annuals and compost the whole plant after they finish.

We plan our garden to have lots of end of season colour and, in reverse, lots of early season colour. We aso plan for positive winter effect.

Another activity this time of year is touring the garden centers. I pick up all my supplies, etc. at big discounts. Just yesterday we purchased 14 large garden urns for a fraction of their retail price. Last week I bought a new pond pump for $19 (regular $299). Clematis plants were on sale for 25cents each (I didn't buy any 'cause I bought over a hundred end-of-season clematis the last 2 years).

I'm not ready to throw in the trowel yet,even though we had a frost Tuesday morning hard enough to burn some leaves on the pumpkins I covered with a hay tarp...A few things like the scarlet runner beans also got nipped.. the flowerbeds are hanging in there with lots of colour and if they can be brave and withstand the frost so can I...lol..savona

Unusual for me, but yes I'm ready to quit. Rain, rain, rain...I'm so sick of it that I didn't even bother to check out the garden section of any place we went to yesterday (figures, the only sunny day in quite a while and I had to go to town). We were lucky to get the lawn mowed yesterday. I have a feeling we're going to go straight to freezing weather once it stops raining.